Insurer completes its sixth major bailout repayment of 2011

US insurance giant AIG has repaid $972m to the US Department of the Treasury.

The repayment will reduce the liquidation preference on one of the special purpose vehicles set up as part of AIG’s bailout by the US government in 2009.

The remaining liquidation preference in the special purpose vehicle, known as AIA Aurora, now stands at £8.4bn. The liquidation preference in the vehicle on the date of formation was $16bn.

The new payment was made mostly from funds held in escrow in connection with last year’s sale of AIG unit American Life Insurance Company to MetLife.

This most recent payment from AIG is  the sixth major payment to the government in 2011 and brings the total repaid in 2011 to approximately $45 billion.

“We continue to make steady progress toward our goal of America’s taxpayers recouping their entire investment in AIG,” AIG chief executive Robert Benmosche said in a statement. “I am confident that AIG’s employees will continue to work hard so we can achieve this goal.”